"We remind them, that ... like the Livoti case when the state courts failed to get a conviction, the family had the extra burden to go to federal court," said Rev. Sharpton, after he, members of Garner's family and their lawyers met for about 30 minutes with Brooklyn federal prosecutors and a representative for the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division.

"We intend to, with dignity, but with determination, to win this case so this doesn't happen again," said Rev. Sharpton outside the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

In 1994, Officer Francis X. Livoti put Anthony Baez, a security guard, in a fatal chokehold in a dispute over a touch-football game. Livoti was acquitted in Bronx state Supreme Court of criminally negligent homicide, but was later found guilty in federal court in 1998 of violating Baez's civil rights. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The city later paid nearly $3 million to settle Baez's family's lawsuits.

Garner, 43, a 350-pound father of six, died July 17, after cops attempted to arrest him for allegedly selling loose cigarettes on Bay Street in Tompkinsville. Video shot by bystanders shows a plainclothes officer, later identified as Daniel Pantaleo, with his arm around Garner's neck, in an apparent chokehold, taking the larger man to the ground.

Garner can be heard gasping, "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!"

Police attributed his death to cardiac arrest.

Autopsy results are pending.

Rev. Sharpton also cited the case of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant sodomized in a Brooklyn precinct 17 years ago by Justin Volpe, a cop from Staten Island, as a precedent for federal intervention.

The Brooklyn district attorney's office handed that case over to federal prosecutors, who secured a conviction when Volpe pleaded guilty to civil rights violations in 1999.

Louima ultimately received an $8.7 million settlement in his civil suit against the city and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.

His lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, is also one of the Garner family's attorneys.

"We can't depend on police policy to stop the chokehold. We need federal [intervention]," Rev. Sharpton said. "We feel there is more than enough federal jurisdiction here that the civil rights of Eric Garner were violated."

"There can be no doubt that at some point of 11 cries of 'I can't breathe,' that intent was established," Rev. Sharpton said. "There can be no doubt that clearly the EMS (emergency medical services) workers and other police did nothing to stop the illegal use of a chokehold. There is no doubt that an illegal chokehold was used with intent. We feel that the civil rights of Eric Garner were violated, that led to his death."

Garner's family did not address the media.

The case is currently being investigated by Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan's office and the NYPD.

A second officer, Justin Damico, was placed on desk duty. Two EMTs and two paramedics from Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton, who responded to the incident, were suspended without pay and barred from answering 911 calls, said a hospital spokeswoman.

Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the police's union, called Pantaleo's modified duty a "completely unwarranted, kneejerk reaction for political reasons and nothing more."

"Not wanting to be arrested does not grant an individual the right to resist arrest nor does it free the officers of the obligation to make the arrest," he said.

Law enforcement and legal experts have told the Advance that even if Pantaleo applied a chokehold, he may not have committed a crime.

The Police Department's Patrol Guide, which prohibits chokeholds, is a guide and not the law, said one expert. Therefore, depending on the results of the police and district attorney's probe, it's possible Pantaleo could face departmental disciplinary charges, but not necessarily criminal charges, experts said.

Rev. Sharpton said he intends to meet with Donovan to "deal with the investigation there."

Donovan's spokesman declined comment, as did a spokesman for Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.